The avatar of golf's rise has, of course, been Tiger Woods, whose virtuoso skills and what McEnroe calls "the magnetic aura you feel around him" have allowed Woods to become the sporting symbol for a time when tennis has been devoid of such stirring on-court personality until perhaps now.
He was the earliest example of a sporting sex symbol and a football phenomenon who has been called "the first Pelé".
His recurrent motifs now include a spherical, toothy, Mickey Mouse-like head, named "DOB" (an acronym referring to an obscure joke); generic flower symbols, sporting button eyes and rictus grins; "jellyfish eyes," with schematic lashes and light-reflection spots; many-eyed mushrooms, at times morphing into atomic mushroom clouds; and ornamental flourishes that recall Hokusai's waves.
The lion is used as a symbol of sporting teams, from national association football teams such as England, Scotland and Singapore to famous clubs such as the Detroit Lions of the NFL, Chelsea and Aston Villa of the English Premier League, (and the Premiership itself), Eintracht Braunschweig of the Bundesliga, and to a host of smaller clubs around the world.
The French Open, so different in style and soundtrack from the American sporting events that I knew best, became a symbol of our new life, our new adventure, as well as my ability to still pay a few bills as an expatriate.
The glowing smartphones are a symbol of what the Barclays Center, and all sporting venues, are fighting against: the increasing difficulty of keeping people actually focussed on the court.
Ironically, it is F1's global stature that has guaranteed that the race, unlike any other sporting events held in Bahrain, has become a strategic symbol for both sides.
From Mark Ramprakash and Linford Christie (who kicked this debate off years ago) to Kelly Holmes, Amir Khan and many others – our symbols of a changing British identity have always been sporting heroes.
Even within the anarchic ranks of the antibalaka, its members sporting machetes and "gris-gris" voodoo amulets, Father Bernard said the symbols of the church carried enough authority to give pause for thought.
Now, posters of Mr. Colom, whose campaign symbol was a dove, are going around showing him bare-chested and sporting gang tattoos.
